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Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has declared that President Muhammadu Buhari was magnanimous to have nominated two ministers from a state he got less than five percent votes during the last presidential elections.
Anambra State has two ministerial nominees: Chris Ngige and Sharon Ikeazor.
Oshiomhole who reacted to those describing the president’s ministerial list as being political patronage rather than credibility, advised Nigerians to insist that the APC government at all levels deliver the next level promises.
Speaking with State House correspondents after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari in the State House, Oshiomhole said: “Whose credibility? How credible are some of those who are talking? The point is that I don’t know if there is a Nigerian who knows every Nigerian. Even as I can say that I have worked for Nigerian people at all levels, as a worker in a factory, as president of the NLC, as governor of a state and now as a national chairman of a party, there are too many Nigerians I will never be able to know.
“The screening process is meant to enable those watching, it is not for nothing that it is televised; it is to enable Nigerians see who the people are. But you will find that people are dismissing the list even before they saw it, just like some other things that Nigerians dismiss without knowing the meaning.
“So, what you and I should insist on is that in the president’s second term, in this next level, our party, our government at the centre, state and local government levels must deliver. That is the entry point for every Nigerian.
“And when you talk of patronage, should we appoint…have you heard of Americans appointing Russians because they are experts to go and preside over their MDAs? Even in your newspapers do you invite me as APC chairman to come and write your editorials?
“Patronage can be positive or negative but if there is one man who has shown the capacity to patronise all including where he did not win election, it is President Muhammadu Buhari. Otherwise, where we got less than five percent, I saw two ministers coming from that state, in spite of the fact that he got less than five percent there. That speaks volumes about a large heart, to accommodate, appreciate and to have an all inclusive government.
“I am very optimistic that these ministers… all of us working together, the party, the executive which the ministers belong and the National Assembly where we have overwhelming majority, we have what it takes to take Nigeria to the next level and the next level we are going there.”
The APC National Chairman boasted that he had provided good leadership for the party.
According to him, Nigerians are appreciating APC better under his leadership.
Oshiomhole had taken over APC chairmanship from Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, who hails from the same state, Edo.
Oshiomhole said that APC now has more members in the National Assembly and also controls the leadership of the two chambers.
He also maintained that APC, under him, was able to uproot the former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and his cronies, politically.
Stressing that APC is waxing stronger, he said that the opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party is in turmoil.
On why he met with President Buhari, he said: “I have a duty to brief him on what the party is doing and also share with him on what the government is doing. You know, a few things had happened over the past two weeks.
“Last week, we had two days of intensive conversation with the president and select group from the private sector, including foreign experts to look at going to the next level, to deal with the specifics of how to accelerate the pace of development.
“You know normally, even for governors, they do open ceremonies, then go away and come for closing ceremonies and say, we look forward to the communiqué. But here, we have a president who sits for 10 hours each day to listen to presentations and debates. He even contributes and that for me is something l’m happy about.
“It shows that our party has moved from being a rally where people go home to one that after everyone has been sworn in; we now sit down to say going to the next level, what are the policy issues and how do we deliver to the electorate. I came to thank him for providing leadership for that exercise.”
Asked what he was doing about the turmoil rocking the party, Oshiomhole said: “You talk about rumours, what about what you see. I am very proud to say that under my chairmanship, our party has made tremendous progress. I am not at the mercy of fake or even disgruntled analysts. I write my own testimonials by myself in terms of what l do, how I do it and what the unbiased people say.
“Irrespective of all the speculations, for example, it was said that 17 governors were going to remove Oshiomhole, what happened? At the end, we provided leadership and had more votes. In the 2015 election, the difference between our candidate and President Jonathan then, was slightly less than three million, but this time around, we had slightly less than four million. I am a National Chairman, not a zonal or state chairman.
“So, my responsibilities include to get the APC at the national level going, including relating with the president, the ways we expect the state chapter chairmen to relate with their governors and the local council chapter chairmen with their local government council chairmen. That is the way it works and I believe that Nigerians under my leadership appreciated APC better under my chairmanship, as evidenced by the fact that we had more Senators and House of Representatives members this year, than before.
“For the first time since 1999, the letter of APC under my signature was read on the floors of both chambers of the National Assembly, announcing the principal officers of the party, as determined through consensus by the leadership of the party, which is why unlike 2015 where APC as a party had no say whatsoever as to who emerged as the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives and principal officers of both chambers. This time around, we got six out of six. Can I do better than that, can I score more than 100 percent? You talked about turmoil, if this is how to be in turmoil, I want to live there.”
The APC chairman maintained that inauguration of House of Assemblies in both Bauchi and Edo states was an aberration.
He said: “Here, l spoke to you that what happened in Edo and in Bauchi were unacceptable. It is not about me. But as a Nigerian who believes in democracy, for nine persons in Bauchi to purport to inaugurate a House of 31 members is wrong. Go and read relevant sections of the constitution, it states clearly that a House cannot be less than 24 and not more than 40 members, 11 people in Bauchi where you have 31 members. It is not about me, not about you. I ask, can you form a quorum of something that does not exist? All my life, l have run associations, I could say, for instance, when I was leader of the NLC, we had a quorum of National Executive Council of the NLC, now when that quorum had not been formed, I could not say we had formed a quorum. So, you cannot form a quorum of the House of Assembly, when it has not been inaugurated. It is about the system. If I condemned Bauchi and I do so in the strongest terms, I cannot condemn less, what happened in Edo State. It just shows that truth has no political affiliation. God must give me the courage to condemn what happened in Edo.
“In the security meeting we have had with some of the senators, governors and law makers, it was agreed that when it comes to proclamations, you do not only write a proclamation letter, but you ensure that it is communicated to all those concerned and you give them ample time so that wherever they are, they can come in.
“We were all here in Abuja, don’t forget we went round the country, talked to everyone that we want Senator Ahmed Lawan as our candidate. We didn’t want to have two candidates vying for the same position from our party, but you saw on that day how Senator Ali Ndume insisted that he must contest against the party’s position. He didn’t hide but he said he has a right, we didn’t deny him that right.
“But you know most Nigerians like to describe our president as Commander-in-Chief; we already know that but for effect, people always amplify it. So as commander-in-chief, he could have commanded the security service, the police chief to ensure that Ndume did not appear or is facing some enquiries somewhere while the election was going on, but he adhered to the letter and spirit of the constitution.
“Senator Ndume was allowed to go to the National Assembly not out of favour but out of his own rights and against our consensus to say he was contesting. What I did that day as you must have seen (because it was televised) was to lobby our senators even as they were doing the voting to say please don’t disgrace the party. There is a moment for hard talk; there is moment for soft talk; there is moment for open talk; there is a moment for quiet talk. A leader must have the capacity to weave all of that together to get the kind of result you desire. As you can see at the end of the day, Senator Ndume had his way to contest, but we humbled him by the poor numbers he got but he exercised his rights. At the end, he said ‘I wanted to prove a point.’ Well, he proved a point which was that he was not capable of defeating the collective will of the APC family; and who held that family? Today, I am privileged to be the chairman. So these are landmarks you should acknowledge.
“For once we didn’t fight on National Assembly. Who is now fighting? Look at PDP, and you refused to ask this question – PDP insisted on secret ballot while APC wanted open ballot. PDP doesn’t want their people to stand up and be counted they wanted their people to vote secretly because they thought that our people would betray us the way they did in 2015, but we had worked hard on our people’s psyche and changed the mindset to recognise that to belong to a party is to be loyal to that party, and that loyalty goes beyond election day.
“And I believe our people bought into those arguments we gave them support beside platform; we gave them other organisational supports and by the time they finished voting we lost. Now who was trying to find out? For the first time in the history of democracy anywhere in the world other than Banana Republic, it is now that PDP set up a panel to investigate how people voted in a secret ballot.
“Why won’t you ask them why are you investigating secret ballot? One day they are going to… (God forbid) they won’t come back again. God forbid that if you go and do secret ballot and they lose the election; they will go to your village and say they want to investigate. They are the ones in turmoil; they are the ones in confusion. We are waxing strong and strong.
“Remember, I was saying that Saraki must be removed, people would say how would I do it? I said okay, if he resists removal then we would uproot. We went to Kwara, we did Oto ge, we uprooted Saraki and you cannot commend me for this? You know who Saraki is? If you are talking of the smartest political player, seasoned smart guy, he is. But for every smartness he has, I have a superior smartness. At the end of the day who won? As a senate president, we uprooted him as senator, we uprooted his nominee for governor, and senators we put our own. Today, he doesn’t have one senator in Kwara; he doesn’t have one House of Representatives in Kwara. Everything in Kwara is APC and you can’t commend me for that? If you don’t, then I will be like the lizard – I will praise myself if you State House correspondents don’t praise me.”
